Procrastination is the thing in our heads that tell us every reason why we shouldn’t do it. It can be difficult to argue with your subconscious because of that.

The best way to counter that is to question it all.

Sometimes the beast way to interrogation your mind so you can stop procrastination. Whenever you feel stuck is when you should ask yourself the big why? questions.

This creates urgency in your actions and actually get started. So here’s some questions you need to ask yourself when your head is telling you to slack off today.

1. What One Thing Can I Start Today

When we’re starting a big project it can be really hard to know where you should start. This problem is so paralyzing.

According to Dr. Tim Pychyl, starting is the hardest to overcome in any task. It’s when we actually start that a project doesn’t seem as difficult as we thought it would be.

Even if you don’t finish it in one go, you’ll feel a sense of accomplish that yes, it is possible. That confidence may be just all the momentum you need to finish.

So when you’re asking yourself what’s the first step is breaking down the project into smaller tasks. Starting easy is nothing bad despite you’ve probably heard ‘do the hardest thing first’. But when you’re facing procrastination, just do what comes naturally.

2. What Are My Three Biggest Things to Do Today?

Procrastination isn’t just avoiding something you don’t want to. It can also be from just having too much work. So many requests and distractions can stop you from doing what matters especially the ones that are important but not immediately a must.

So every morning ask yourself what are the 3 most important things today? Make them specific. Then commit to them.

Block out a few hours of your day to just doing what you need to do. Once they are done do you move on to something else.

3. How Can I Make This Easier?

Now a lot of people think success requires hard work and it’s true that most of the time it does. But sometimes it’s the belief of things are too hard or require a lot of effort can make us stop doing them.

Sometimes its just more efficient to be lazy at something to just get it done. Depending on what you’re trying to do, it may not matter doing it the best way possible.

For an example, You may not be able to workout every day, but you can control how much time you can devote to it.

Going to the gym and then back home can take like an hour. Even so you can do basic exercises at home in 10 minutes. Sure it’s not the same, but its better than nothing.

S.J. Scott an expert in habit building says to start a new habit is to always do it small as possible and move up gradually. Consistency is the main key here.

Also if it’s possible you can delegate your tasks, then please do so! They’ll free up your time and increase focus on what matters. It will give less reason to procrastinate.

4. What Will Go Wrong if I Don’t Do This Now?

The author Jim Collins, says in the book, Great by Choice that we may have a productive paranoia in our lives. These are why people like Bill Gates and Andy Grove were always worried about the worst.

So they were extra careful about who they worked. Always preparing. Fear was a big motivator for them and thats something that helps us improve where we get our motivation from.

So ask yourself what are the consequences? Whats the worst that could happen? If nothing is, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Once there is a consequence do we actually care about things.

We all procrastinate some time in our lives. Even the most productive people. The key is making the effort in doing something every day. Which may need to start with asking the right questions.

I’ve talk a lot about breaking out of your comfort zone on Instagram. Saying yes to more things, being available to more people.

This all leads to vulnerability which can cause anxiety. The key here is to learn to embrace without being confide by it.

How I Broke Out of My Social Comfort Zone by Saying Yes to Everything

When I first started making this podcast, I thought a lot of scary stuff about it. Not necessarily shaking but full of anxiety. My thoughts of feelings were in a new strange place.

I had open myself to criticism and judgment.

It was hard to focus on work out of fear of what people might think. I would read comments, reviews, and took it all personally.

The good thing was I got a lot more positive feedback than I ever imagined. People who didn’t like what I did didn’t even care enough to say anything and those who did, well, may their voice heard.

Vulnerability Is Important, But Not If It Stresses You Out Too Much

Even though having my writing out for all to see scares me, I don’t stop because I want to improve myself, not just in being a writer. It helps me visualize and talk to myself about what’s really important.

Think about your deepest relationship, whether a friend, a spouse, or your parents.

Chances are you told them personal details you wouldn’t tell anyone else. When you get in a fight with them it probably isn’t pretty. But it always strengthens relationships because you get through it.

They learn how you function, what makes you tick, and the empathy it requires to make you feel at ease. Granted you don’t need these conflicts to strengthen, but they make you feel better about how you present your true self. Vulnerability humbles the confirmation bias. It can difficult to talk about how you honestly feel about certain things while being in constant fear what they might think.

You open yourself up to criticism but also to opposing views. Which can broaden your horizon about what you know. These little things actually are good in the long run.

Four Resolutions that Got Me Out of My Comfort Zone This Year

Yes, breaking out feels scary, but it’s actually good for you. It improves your performance as said by Yerkes-Dodson Law. Psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson explained that uncomfortableness leads to to a more consistent level of performance. But if you want to improve performance then you need to improve the level of anxiety and stress exposed.

So that feeling of stress and anxiety is telling you are growing just like sore muscles after a workout the next day.

But bear in mind too much stress and anxiety can cause you to fatigue and bestsellers less productive though. So you need to find your optimal anxiety.

Set Realistic Goals to Hedge Your Anxiety

In the last few weeks I’ve felt lethargic with my comfortability. Being more honest, being able to follow through with what I say, and being more reliable. It’s difficult to accomplish all these things at once. So that’s why I broke them up into smaller goals that are more manageable.

Blunt honesty comes super easy for some people, but people like me can be difficult about how to go about it. So I made it a goal of mine to be more honest about myself with people in general.

So if I saw a bad movie with a friend I will tell them it was a bad movie.

Stop Caring About What Others Think, and Get Back Your Self-Respect

Even telling yourself it’s not a big deal can make it more of a big deal. Which causes more anxiety than anything.

This made me realize that sticking to my plan easier overall. But not if I set a clearer goal. By just crossing it off my list gives you motivation to express honesty.

Without a goal, I probably would have lied to him without thinking about it. The most important is though, is the goal, wasn’t about his reaction. This allowed me to know we care too much about how people think.

Looking at the perspective of getting it done was worth more.

It’s when you do something and find out it’s not as scary as you thought

When you watch the olympics, it’s every year they are breaking records. You can have a sense of seeing super heroes in action, but they definitely have their share of the problems they have in their lives. How they accomplish it is through training and determination just like we go throughout our goals.

Brenda Martinez, a professional runner at the last Olympic trials told Science of Us that she focused on the things she controlled, not the actual end game of her goal.

After she made the team for the 1500 meter dash, she recalled how she almost didn’t make it. Apparently another runner fell into her. She described it as:

“I just quickly let go of what happened in the 800m and got back to my routine, to focusing on all the little things I could do that would give me the best chance of running well later in the week.”

After all, you can’t control everything that goes into your goal. Even if you’re aiming for something lower key, like beating your best previous time in a local 5K race, things can happen. You could get injured, or race day weather could work against you. You might even show up to the track for your workout one day and find that it’s closed and will be under construction for the rest of the summer. (Yes, all of these have happened to me.)

You never know where you’ll begin. No matter how much you try to predict your goals. Especially with all the other uncontrollable things going on.

Instead, choose what you can do so and your plan how you’ll reach it - Then execute it.

While we’re all on the quest for self improvement, it’s important to know that it’s possible to achieve it. Improving your writing, lifting heavier weights at the gym, or meditating longer.

What makes this all so difficult is that it’s possible to just revert back to all the tendencies you’ve made that weren’t productive. Really making the concept of always improving every day more difficult.

I do a lot of different things out of enjoyment and to make a living, you’re probably like that as well or at least you want to be. The thing is though, is mastering many areas in life might actually be counterintuitive.

Too Many Good Intentions

If you want a lot of good habits and continually have them then you need to keep at it every time. Now how does one go about that?

Psychology research has found out how we should follow our goals:

You’re actually more likely to stick with habits if you have a specific plan of when and where you’ll do them. If you fill out the sentence: “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME OF DAY] at/in [PLACE].

Researches says people who do this were more likely to accomplish what they were trying to do. This is through a implementation intentions because of how specific the planning is.

This has been proven and repeated in many studies across all habits. It helps go to the gym, eat healthier, and even stop smoking.

But the caveat is it only works on one habit at a time.

That’s a big reason why a lot of people can’t change their lifestyle just like that. Researches say you’re most likely not going to succeed if you do more than one at a time.

So it’s important for me to say again: Developing a plan to stick with what, where, and how you’ll do it will increase the odds of how you actually follow through and makes thing happen.

What Happens When You Focus on One Thing

When when creating a habit it takes a lot mental power to keep it before it turns into an automatic thought process.

Researchers have called this as a “automaticity”. The ability to perform an action without thinking about the process.

But it only happens when there’s a lot of repetition and practice. The more you so it the easier it gets.

The most important thing to consider is that there’s a maximum on when habits happen automatically. The amount of time it requires to build. Habit it always the same due to frequencies and difficulty.

Researchers say it takes about 66 days for a habit to be formed. But that’s over a widely behavioral patterns in every day life so it can be a few months for it to all come to gather.

Change Your Life Without Changing Your Entire Life

The irony in it all though is that research is essentially about changing your life by not changing your life. It’s really one specific habit and then mastering it before you move on to another.

In the journey to mastery requires a focus only one thing at a time.

If you’re in between your twenties and thirties you’ve probably experiencing a lot of problems in your life. I deal with it too. Wether it’s not knowing your purpose, terrible transitions, anxiety, or just feeling not good enough.

So you’re not alone, I’ve been there. There’s ways to overcome and realize its not as you think it’ll be.

There’s questions you’re probably asking like: is this the correct career path for me, I shouldn’t have changed paths in college, will ever be happy in my career? The average person now jumps job to job every 2 years or so. It can be anywhere between retail, to IT, to security, to carpentry, etc.

Maybe you’re living alone for the time, maybe fulling supporting yourself as well. Despite all that you’re probably getting hearing all sorts of things from society. What ‘millennials’ are doing these days. What aren’t they doing. Why aren’t they buying ______?.

It’s hard to be yourself when everyone groups you into a box. It’s also hard to transition to your own self which leads to the imposter syndrome problem. Some never feel like they ever transition into adulthood.

What Psychologists Say About The Quarter-Life Crisis

In the study titled Emerging Adulthood, early adulthood and quarter life crisis by Dr. Oliver Robinson at the University of Greenwich, He broke it down into 5 phases.

Phase 1: You’re living on autopilot mode without freedom of your choices such as career and relationships.

Phase 2: You have an urge to get out of this situation if you take action.

Phase 3: You can quit everything that is making you feel stuck and then reevaluate what you want out of your life.

Phase 4: You begin rebuilding your life.

Phase 5: You have more commitments that are more relevant to the goals you want.

Most actually get through it being better than ever before. It’s that the period of not knowing what you want or where you’re going that makes it so difficult.

It’s as almost we go through a natural state of depression as what we thought adulthood would be like in our college days and how they actually are. Or you may have settled yourself up for disappointment for having idealistic goals.

Even successful people has had similar problems. Even your own parents in one way. It really does help to talk to people about and realize that you’re not alone.

Many people go through it and maybe not admit it or show it, but they do.We get a perception of feeling like we’re falling behind when really everyone was once in the same spot.

Talking to people about your problems is a team effort. It’s why it’s important to have a mentor outside of your work and can be honest about. If many, many others have gone through this so can you.

Use This Method to Work On Your Emotional Intelligence

When it comes to understanding the biggest problem isn’t the surroundings but actually within ourselves. That said the best way to get over it is to improve yourself as a person and what stresses you out.

The benefits of emotional intelligence help greatly in exceeding this. Even the Psychological Perspectives journal entries say this is the most used skill in overcoming this problem. It’s all about reacting to things you don’t have control over and controlling what you can which are always your emotions.

Now being able to really control your emotions usually comes with age and experience. But you can also manually learn it just like any other skill have it faster.

Reasons why I started The One Step Journal is to find out what problems you were having and how you feel about them every day. Writing about your problems are scientifically proven to make you feel better.

Be aware of the words you use. Be real with yourself about them.Maybe you’ll find out your problems aren’t really that bad. Especially if they’re like annoyances rather than setbacks. We’re actually more than our emotions.

There’s no way to really skip over these problems as you would have to skip time. What you can do is work on what’s bothering you first.

So before yo

So much to do with such little time. This is an on going problem in this world. But it seems extra problematic during holidays. The shopping, traveling, families, it all takes up our time.

But whatever date it is, it’s always the same: Tasks that always appear and never end. How can someone deal with this day in and day out?

Here’s some ways I’ve found to make it easier.

1. Reset Your Mind

When you feel stressed and overwhelmed it’s in these moments that you need to remember you are in the present. Notice how your body feels. Take this moment notice all your five senses in and all that feels when you have these negative emotions.

While yes, stress and being overwhelmed are terrible, but it’s not the end. And if you see them as an opportunity to practice and to learn, then you got good news. This your time to take in.

Now this doesn’t have to take even a full minute. Just 5 or even 10 seconds is all you need. It’s to see how are you feeling. How your thoughts are effecting yourself. This is to wake yourself up from the dream of feeling terrible.

2. Accept That Not Everything Can Be Done Today

You could have 20 things to do today maybe even 50, but realistically speaking are they going to happen today? Maybe you could do one in hour but maybe that’s it.

This is the wake up call that not everything can be done today. It’s impossible, So instead this allows us to think only one thing that matters. Just have one thing and just do that.

You delegate them, defer them, or remove them, but you can’t do them all right now. Focus on one with your full attention. This is vital in productivity.

3. Do the Highest Priority First

Despite being busy, we run through all the small tasks quickly. It feels like we’re going through everything but never actually accomplishing anything that matters.

So if you’re going to be working on one thing then it must be the most impactful of your day. That probably doesn’t involve social media or tv.

One important email that will make the difference. It could help someones life, it could lead to a better career, It could move on to something even greater.

It can be tough to find out what’s the most impactful project when they’re all fighting for your attention. But if you spend some time to think what can really wait do you find out what you should do.

Even though you will still have to the smaller tasks in your every day life. These things are best when you take a break from your largest project to do. It builds a rest while still being productivity. It cleans the mind of what may have been offing you down. The key here is to not procrastinate those smaller ones.

4. Do a Task with Passion

Once you’ve decided on your most important task - then set aside everything else. Remember you can’t do them all so don’t worry. Set that goal of why you’re doing that task. This is the passion that you must remind yourself at least weekly if not daily.

I do things for my dog, my parents, the friends who believe me. I’m sure you have people in your life you want to support. Create a passion for all your tasks.

Let it move you forward for your tasks. Be mindful of your mood when you do that certain task. Let it become one with yourself. You can fight back any urges when you are more attuned with a passion to your project.5. Let Go By Smiling

By having so much to do and wanting to do it all can really make you not do anything at all. That desire to get it all done can be controlled and here’s how.

That’s by letting go. Think about the things you want to do vs what you need to do. Once you figured that out let go of the things you think you need. Be open to this and watch your stress remove itself.

A great exercise to remove these negative emotions is by smiling. I know it’s cheesy to force yourself and you’re going to look silly doing it. But trust me it works. Forced smiling actually does create a level of genuine happiness.

While at the end of the day, these tasks aren’t going to magically clear your to do list b

Sun Tzu is an infamous war strategist from ancient China and wrote the book, The Art of War. He believed in a ‘soft power’ and an ‘agile confrontation’. He essentially tried to win wars without actually going into combat or to win the easiest way possible.

He wrote,” In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won.” He then told his troops to “make your way by unexpected routes and attack unguarded spots.” which lead to state,”Military tactics are like water. For water, in its natural course, runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So, in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”

Now while the book is more or less a ‘How to Win Wars 101’ these principles can be how we deal with our own battles in our lives. Sun Tzu’s teachings are about finding the easiest ways to achieve something.

Not only do we see these teachings in war, but in business, building habits, and generally being better version of ourselves.

### The Battle for Better Habits

In a lot of ways we try to ‘brute force’ our ways into victory with our habits and mindsets. it’s possible to quit smoking right now but reality is most fail because it’s not that simple.

Really though, we’re fighting a problem head on where it’s at its strongest.

We try to eat healthier but then we’re out with our friends. We try to study when we’re watching tv. We try to write a book in a crowded subway.

It’s no wonder those things don’t happen or not nearly effective. Some people can say you don’t have the willpower to make it happen. You just don’t want it bad enough. But failure isn’t always because of willpower but more the strategy that person set.

We see it in military generals that they attack what will be the easiest and escalate from there. Once they know their opponent is not at their best and morale is low is when they engage. They never fight when the opponent is ready and expecting. In the same way, why start a new habit in a difficult environment?

Having advantage over terrain was one the biggest strengths to Sun Tzu’s strategy. Always taking the easier way instead of the harder one. Just like building strength for habits and get that better position for success.

### Sun Tzu, Master of Habits

Sun Tzu had a lot of great habits. So here’s some examples in ways he builds them in his life and in war.

### Example 1:

Sun Tzu said,“You can be sure in succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.”

What you should do:” Build habits that are at the easiest for you at the moment then scale upwards.

### Example 2:### Sun Tzu said, “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”

What you should do: improve your behavior by knowing the right habits you need to start first and ones you can forget.

### Example 3:### Sun Tzu said, “A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.”

What you should do: make an effort to learn a habit when it’s most convenient or you.

### Fight Battles You Are Destined to Win

To become a better person isn’t just a willpower or work ethic. It’s a strategic purpose. What a lot of people think are problems are the willpower but actually are working on things that are not to your advantage.

If you want to read more books, don’t do it in a room with a tv or a computer. The less distractions, the better.

If you’re looking to get more fit, don’t use a work out program for professional athletes. That doesn’t mean you can never get there but it’ll be a battle you can’t win easily. Start with something you can win easily and then escalate.

If you’re in an environment that is not positive to your dreams then move to one that can or at least talk to the right people.

Work environments can make all the difference in settings that make it easier or harder. Like getting having your kids from school to create chaos in your personal office. Make it easier on yourself.

Always pla

I’ve always loved reading about the next productivity system in search of the best one. But the truth is, there isn’t. It’s not the productivity system that’s the problem. It’s procrastination, discomfort and uncertainty of fear.

As with a lot of people, getting inbox zero is on everyone’s to-do list. It’s pretty simple, you read and respond to them, maybe check your finances, and prepare dinner. Being productive is super easy when you’re procrastinating the big tasks.

The best productivity methods will always suffer from procrastination.

When a task is difficult, people procrastinate, just like everyone else. The same goes for uncertainty. Download a new to-do app, organize our most import files, and start going through our emails. This all can add to procrastination.

It’s a lot more comfortable to go into little distractions and small tasks instead of dealing with big, important tasks. It’s so much easier to check social media, your favorite blog, and youtube. There’s hardly any effort in that and there’s that

immediate feeling  of gratification. The hard tasks can you give you negative results and got to go through hoops to achieve it. There’s quite a difference between these two.

Here’s a few important key take aways that helps:

Take a moment to reflect. Really think about these little distractions and tasks. Take a break from the computer and take a walk, a shower, or meditate. It’s a small and simple solution that a lot of people overlook. This allows you to refocus and find out what matters instead of what’s easiest.

Remember why you’re doing it. When you’re reflecting, think about who’s benefiting from your work. Is a client, a loved one, or even yourself? How will that make your life better? Meaningful work always solves problems. Instead of thinking about it for only yourself, think of it for others.

Get used to being uncomfortable. When you’re away from your distractions, focus on only one task and feel yourself to be uncomfortable. Don’t worry, like all things, we eventually get used to it. It’s like exercising or diving into cold water, you will get better from it.

Expect the feeling uncertainty. We all don’t really know everything that’s going on in our lives. This can cause anxiety which leads to stress and unhappiness. We don’t like to work on something or think about it. We just rationalize our actions of not doing it. Really, uncertainty is necessary and even mandatory. Think about how boring life will be if you always knew how it will start and end?

This is what makes life fun – the wonder, the adventure, the journey, how you spent your time and lived your life. Uncertainty is jumping into the deep end to find out it’s actually not as deep as you thought it would be.

Yes, if you do it in large amounts it can affect your life in a negative way – so only do it small doses, it takes time to do this well every time. Then go for a walk, meditate, or whatever to take a breather. Then focus again on your next project. Then do it again. This skill set is invaluable for any workload.

So while you’re set in a productivity system, remember it’s not about you, but the problems you’re solving for others.

Having a mindset of being more productivity and the right tools at your disposal makes all the difference of getting things done.But do we see what we are surrounding ourselves with? Our working environment says a lot about our work ethic and structure.Most have a set it and forget it approach to it. Like our mattresses and couches, we spend most of our time at our desk or at a coffee shop. So why not make it the best it can be?Wherever you are, there’s always something you can do to improve your work space that works for you.Here’s why our work environment matters even when you don’t notice it.Studies show our work habits are based on the external triggers from our surroundings. Because we’re at the same place at the same desk, there’s a lot of influencing factors. That’s all great to find an environment that work best for our productivity, but there’s more to it than that.Our brain essentially wants to protect us even when we don’t know it. When there’s dire situations, we act more quickly which is called ‘thin slicing’. This means it takes a small section of reality and form into whatever behavior we act upon it.So your work environment aren’t just affecting you as you physically work, but also the way the brain subconsciously thinks and acts. For an example people at a Starbucks holding a hot coffee were more likely to describe other people in their surroundings to be more warm and friendly than those who were holding iced coffee.People actually behave more professionally when there’s a briefcase in a room. This even happens if there’s just a picture of it as well and even when there’s no conscious memory of seeing a briefcase afterwords.Same way if you talk down to yourself - you’ll start believing it. Fragrance changes perception of the products being shown. So how do we create an environment that can work the same way?Remove the clutter before it removes youThere’s many creative and productive people who have messy desks. As Albert Einstein said: “If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”But, there is a negative impact that your surroundings can have on your negative impact of your ability to focus and gain information.The neuroscientists at Princeton University have found that as well. The people’s performance in organized environment vs unorganized ones had a huge impact in productivity.Now I understand it’s not that easy to just remove stuff from your life. Clutter isn’t actually from laziness but rather the restraint one would feel by losing something in their life.Researchers of Yale have found that losing things can be the same thing as receiving pain. So our brain was subconsciously keep that prevent self harm.So we view loss as literal pain.So what can we do to reduce the clutter?* Use constraints. This can be as easily as limit the mount of websites, magazines, social media, texting, you do on a regal basis. Stick to only what you need so you don’t have more than you should.* Use smaller storage. The less you can hold the less you force yourself to live without.* Set a monthly cleaning time to make sure that your clutter is in check* Use the best place that inspires you.Large spaces or places that have large windows tend make us feel more inspired. Architectures know very well that building a corporate building will affect on its performance. Use different places for different places of mindSo different environments are going to change how we feel and think so it’s best to take advantage of that.Human nature loves habits. So we know what triggers them so let's take advantage of that. What's regarded as task association is where your brain knows you are in a certain area and proactively meets your expectations. Gregory Ciotti, a famous writer says he changes his productivity based on the device he uses. when he’s on his laptop, he knows he’s going to be reading long form articles.When he's at his desktop he knows he's going to be writing seriously. His table

# The Most Underrated Skill: ListeningEveryone likes to say they’re a good listener. It’s one of those easy traits that everyone has a fundamental level such as I can communicate my words and write down words. Similarity though, people also say they’re a good driver but is that really the case?

People think listening is about doing 3 things:

* Not talking when others are speaking

* Giving non-verbal cues that you are listening such as nodding your head

* Being able to repeat what was said

In theory this sounds good but put into the test as faults that don’t work out.

A study of over 3,000 people in help of making better managers i business have found out that differences in listening abilities goes down into 4 categories.

Being able to listen well is more than just being silent while the other person talks. Actually people believe the best listeners are able to ask questions that are engaging to the current topic.

Just nodding your head doesn’t give the most accurate evidence that someone is listening, but asking a good question is all the proof they need to make it work. Listening is essentially a 2-way street rather than a person who’s hearing vs a person who speaking. Good conversations are active ones.

From the studies, good listening is also a reflection of a person’s self- esteem. By being a positive experience has made conversations more engaging and overall more pleasant to comprehend. So by not talking a critical tone has helped people listen better.

Another section was good listening is about cooperation. In a good interaction, feedback moved back in forth smoothly. While in poor listeners were seen as better debaters but not in a cooperative manner that results in a better conclusion. It’s not about winning an argument but helping to resolve any problems.

Lastly, good listeners make good suggestions. Feedback is a wonderful way for us to improve as people. Good listening skills are no different in that in order to know the correct paths and the self awareness to know how.

With the power of suggestions allows us to stop jumping to conclusion and address the situation. Similarity trying to be a sponge in a conversation that sucks up the info but doesn’t really doesn’t contribute out.

Instead good listeners are like trampolines. It’s about the ideas you bounce off from rather than absorbing it. Gaining energy and height from a conversation is exactly what makes a good listener.

Each of these sections of listening can build off of each other. So if you’ve been criticized for jumping to conclusions it’s because you’re not using all different uses of listening.

Now with this knowledge you can now understand exactly what is being said and how to contribute it in a productive and effective way. Not only does this enhance our own wisdom but makes you a better person to talk to.

So let’s start more conversations together.